


Republic's Justice

by Darth Eldritch (Dark_Holocron)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Genre: Dustil Onasi - Freeform, Gen, KotOR AU, Light Side, Male Revan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-10
Updated: 2011-05-10
Packaged: 2017-10-19 05:32:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/197467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Holocron/pseuds/Darth%20Eldritch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carth reasesses his priorities in anticipation of meeting his estranged son on Telos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Republic's Justice

“I knew you wouldn’t let the Republic down!”

Carth Onasi, upon Sunry’s verdict of innocent in the Manaan courts on the charges of murdering Elassa Huros, Dark Jedi and alleged Sith spy.

Revan won that case, proving the innocence of the old Republic Hero before the Selkath judges, using cool reason and logic against a poorly prepared arbiter of the Sith Diplomatic Commission. He knew of Sunry’s guilt, had the old man’s confession of what really happened, Sunry killing Elassa Huros, his lover, while she was asleep in bed.

But all defendants were entitled to a fair trial, and the Republic itself needed to be protected against the evil Sith. The supply of Kolto and the Republic’s standing on Manaan was crucial.

And the Republic needed its heroes.

Sunry went free.

“Do you think justice has been done?” Jolee, when Revan later asked the old Jedi his opinion of the verdict.

“No, not really,” Revan confessed.

Both of them found it a sad state of affairs, Revan feeling decidedly ill after the trial.

Carth saw it as a matter of serving the interests of the Republic.

Revan could imagine Elassa as a scared young hopeful haunting the halls of the Czerka arcade in Dreshdae, looking to impress a Sith into allowing her to enter the academy itself. He wanted to feel that even in his darkest depths of being a Sith Lord that he would have never committed a crime as sordid as Sunry’s.

“This is important to the Republic!” Carth insisted.

“It is. But what message do you think it sends to the young men and women who joined the Sith for whatever reasons that the Republic does not play by its own rules? That their lives are fundamentally worthless to us? That they are justified in their bitter views because we are hypocrites? That they can never be redeemed?”

“We are not hypocrites! The Republic stands for justice!” Carth, angrily. “We were forced to defend Sunry because… because that Sith woman was spying! Yeah, yeah, he shouldn’t have been messing around on his wife, but…” he stopped when Revan only shook his head.

“With slightly different circumstances, what if it had been Dustil instead of Elassa?” Revan’s quiet question.

Carth’s face went white. The shock of what Revan said silenced him for a beat of a moment as several layers of realization unfolded in Carth’s mind.

“I would want justice then,” he admitted. “Even… even against the Republic… stars what I have I done? I was so wrapped up in being a hero… thinking that my service to the Republic, freedom… that I neglected my family. Dustil… his mother, my wife…” he shook his head in sorrow.

“There was nothing you could have done, Carth. Had you been there you would had been called by the militia. And you had no way of knowing,” Revan, gentle.

“I could have…”

“Carth, I was the Dark Lord who was ultimately accountable for what the Sith Empire did, no matter what Canderous says. You’ve forgiven me, why won’t you forgive yourself?”

 

O o o O o o O o o O

Telos.

Carth closed his eyes, recalling the conversation with Revan and the troubling insight he had from it. He kept his eyes closed as the shuttle docked in the bay of the immense shield the Republic had begun building to help restore the ravaged planet below. It hurt to see the wounded planet below the shield, its poisonous atmosphere vivid through the crisscrossing of countless durasteel beams that were going to be the framework of the immense orbital shield protecting Telos.

Home.

Memories of burning air, screams, battle, his hoarse calls for a medic…

And his running and years of obsession with taking vengeance against Saul Karath until the traitorous admiral lay dead at his feet, leaving Carth with nothing more than emptiness and a bitter revelation that he would have rather not have heard about the Ebon Hawk mission.

Later, after the Battle of the Star Forge, there was talk of promotions, the rank of admiral for the war hero Carth Onasi.

But for now Carth put that aside.

For once the Republic could wait, and it had to wait.

Dustil waited below, as he had promised earlier before leaving the Sith Academy on Korriban.

This time family came first.


End file.
